Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-04-29
A PIONEER GHOST.

PIONEER GHOST. I.
1thad for years been favorite idea
with Roswell (Rolla, as his boyhood
name was) to restore an early pio-
neer--sugar camp. A considerable bit
OF the primitive wood had been pre-
served. quite enough to hide the boil
ing works. The kettles were hung by
beech trummels, on q lug pole--there
were the store, trough, the sap yoke
and buckets, the small, rather too
neat cabin. Right about headquar-;;
tiers were the ak made sap troughs-all
as in the primitive times.
The day-the last Of two or three
successive sun bright days, indicating
the wane OF the sugar season, and the
kindling of the year-had been all
that q single day could we'll be.
1t was past, the girls were gone, and
night was making it's approach seen
and felt in the ancient wood, helping
the cherished illusions-the years turn
ed back, the grand forest restored, the
silent group in the deepening twilight
were boys again, in the depth OF the
woods. The girls were gone. 1t had
been a great day for them, old girls,
yet for the day, girls. They have ram
bled little heavy-footed and slow,
through the woods, where the earlier
flowers Of the spring began to show
themselves-the liverworts, blood
roots, the spray like ground nuts, and
many budded spring beauty. In the
favored place few real leeks stabbed
up. There had been q butterfly
seen Hopping among the trees, hitting
on the sap sprouts, and many honey
bees, robins and blue birds were there,
chickadees, blue jays and the nut
hatch-winter residents these last; all
these had been noted-talked over
and the girls were gone. Ann, her
younger sister Helen, and one of the
Dams went with them. So Elizabeth
and Minerva went with Elvira for the
night.sss Elderly girls-all called such
for the time. ~ E-@
The boys, Roosevelt, Monroe, anoth-
or Dan, Capt. John, of the j. hundred
day company, William and gTheo-
these last came down from Michigan;
stood rather pensiveIy about the rude
furnace and boiling copper kettles,
CONVEX sing in subdued voices, in the
perceptible twilight under the print
tive trees. The fire was growing con-
spicuous, and it's sparks visible. A
colony Of frogs from the swale below
We're making themselves heard, among
vich were the piercing notes of a few
hyIodes, which usually precede the
croakers. 1--WE shan make any more
good sugar." said Monroe, in his chest
tones. p IT. ...-'
"These are the first Of Them" said
Dan. ''They will be frozen up three
times. No good sugar after the Sec
ond is the old rule. 5.55 .a.,s y. SAL ;. =.
Then followed some discussion of
the relations Of frogs to the condi-
tions favorableato sugar making. The
conclusion was that they only indi-
Gated the advance OF the season.
There was an old time incident OF
the neighborhood, which though now
forgotten, occurred since the Johnson
boys went to Michigan, and which r.
had promised to tell them of after the
girls left, and they now claimed a per-
fOrmanCe.3 nj E2.s IL -. IS
"You know can't tell a story, and
this is not a story and has no come
out OF any sort" was his hesitating
preliminary. He was no great talker
at the best t'That is the rule now
said Dan, who remained "a man be-
gins anywhere in the current OF every
day life, takes q commonplace person
or two and sticks to them for q year
or SO, tells usually what they don't do
and the reason or no reason why, and
drops them. AS yours i al about .
5 phOSt--' .s95Y. d d. 355ss FF4z
"A ghost that il not ! ghost, q, put
in the .sroposed narrator.
who haunted On old barn thirty
by fortv'' ---s 8Es 81, 81. q, 4. u, i.5.
.'Or didn't INTERCEPTED Monroe. 1 1
'.Or didn' I, s accepted Dan. sit will
run in the line Of the present school
H nv ~ Z, 3, =, n &, ], :, :,
when Roswell, his back TO the fire,
threw his head mp suddenly sideways
"a way Of his and began:
sit was absst this time OF year,
i and just such q spell Of weather as
this--Anscomb had acted alittle
q 1ueerly all winter l0pger. IL came
on SO slowly, with such q steady down